Rock Camp USA - June 19, 2010 Show at Antones - Austin, TX

This was perhaps one of the most exciting "kid" events I've ever attended. A friend of my son's attended Rock Camp USA in Austin, TX this summer. You can check out their web site for a more in-depth view of what they do. In a nutshell, kids of varying ages attend, bands are formed and at the end of the session, they perform live at Antones in Austin.

It was pretty inspiring to see bands made up of elementary, middle and high school kids rockin' out and doing a damn good job of it as well. The show progressed in age groups and skill levels and I have to say that some of the headliner bands were quite talented.

The photo posted here is of my son's friend, Kyle. He is a great singer and talented musician, as were the rest of the kids in his band. They did an excellent job of performing and engaging the audience. I decided to get a little creative with the post-processing of the photo - figured it was a band shot so needed something besides the typical adjustments. Hope you enjoy it.

Strangely enough, I actually knew some of the songs.... I guess I'm not getting too "old" after all, eh?

If you have a kid who's interesting in being a musician or a singer, and actually has some potential, I suggest you consider Rock Camp USA.

Tulum - El Castillo

El Castillo - June, 2010

The Tulum ruins are located on the Yucatan Peninsula, not far from several vacation spots in Mexico. We were on vacation this year with wonderful friends and were fortunate enough to book this adventure through Adventuras Mayas - Tulum Xtreme. It was a great day of zip-lining, rappelling, swimming in a cenote and finally visiting the Tulum Ruins. I recommend this tour company to anyone going to Cancun.

Tulum was built around 1250 AD during the decline of the Mayan civilization. El Castillo sits on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea and was used both as a watchtower and a temple. Similar in structure, although considerably smaller than the pyramid at Chichen Itza, El Castillo is the product of several phases of construction. Its height and positioning gave it good visibility over both the land to the west and the sea to the east.

I found it interesting and somewhat funny that the three openings at the front of El Castillo were backed by screen doors. You can see them if you enlarge my photo some.

It was a pretty hot day, and after the tour guide gave us the history of the site, we had about 45 minutes to hoof it around the area and get as many pictures as possible. This made it a bit impossible to really take in the site, but I can relive it through my photos - I took 138 ph0tos while I was there.

Fun!

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Sea Rats Look Nice Sometimes.....

Zuma Beach - Malibu, California - August 19, 2008

If you follow my blog, you would have read about the great sushi restaurant Zuma Sushi in my post here. (Again.... yummy stuff. If you are a fan of sushi and you are in Malibu, you MUST go there.)

So, to fill in the background for the story presented there, as we discovered we were starving and we began traveling back south to find a restaurant, I was griping under my breath about not getting ANY sunset shots - which was the complete purpose of my going out that night. So my boss, who was driving, called me something along the lines of a whiner, and whipped into the Zuma Beach entrance.

We pull upto the gate - YEAH A FREAKIN GATE - and there is a guy there ready to take our money. *** Okay... an aside here. We are driving along a public beach in one of the most taxed states in the Union and they want us to pay to enter into a beach and park in a tiny parking lot? Not only that... but it was seven bucks. Aside over. *** We ask the nice attendant if we could just go in for about 10 minutes and take some pics. Promptly we are told that the regulations are that each driver must pay the fee in order to park and that he is not responsible if we decide to drive through, not pay and we get a ticket from the roaming beach cops.

So we drive through.

I'm trying to direct my boss where to park and he keeps passing inlets into the parking lot. So we all tell him where to turn on the next inlet. It was actually quite entertaining. Imagine a bunch of geeks in a car, trying to side-seat/back-seat drive while another geek is driving (fast mind you) and not really wanting to listen to anyone.

So we park... quite roughly.

And we all jump out, me with my gear, my boss and another cohort with their gear, and our fourth in his work business clothes - and we run (kind of... we ARE geeks trying to wear casual clothes) to the beach, taking up positions to catch the sun before it goes down.

I manage to get some nice sunset shots and as the sun continued to lower behind the land jut up the coast, I saw these sea rats (seagulls for you laymen) running with the tide, picking up whatever sea rats pick up. I snapped off a bundle of shots, while my injured foot is killing me (another story) and my sandals are filling up with sand. (Yeah... I should have taken them off.)

Above is the result... and SEE, searats can actually appear to be quite pretty when set in the right lighting with the right scenery.

The Calming Effect of the Sun....

Near the Cheesecake Factory - Marina Del Rey, California - August 20, 2008

You ever had that bloated feeling? Ever feel like you've eaten so much that you would explode? Has there been a time in your life where you swore you would never eat again? If you need to have one of these life-changing experiences, and I'm no saying change for the better either, then go have a meal at the Cheesecake factory.

This was the second meal I had had there during my trip to Santa Monica and I had a plan in mind: I will eat light and not feel like a beached whale after I had finished my meal. It was an admirable goal... after all, I am filled with enormous amounts of WILL POWER!

So, 1 avocado eggroll, 1 sweet corn "something", 1 spring roll, 1 buffalo chicken stuffer, and 3 corn chips with artichoke dip on them later I received my meal: the thai chicken pasta with peanut sauce. Of course I had to order something to drink besides the 5 glasses of water I consumed during the night... the tropical smoothie was my choice.

30 minutes later I remember that I wore my cargo shorts, and I was now filling them. Normally, I have to wear a belt to keep them up. Glutton is a word that comes to mind. A collegue across the table then said, "Okay gents, what's for desert!" I almost vurped.

During this period of increasing pain, I saw this palm across the small boat inlet near the restaurant and thought, "Would that make a good picture? Ow.... ow......... ow.... Do I have to move to take that picture? Ow.... ow..... ow......"

Well, above is the result - I hope it is okay.

Want to see the new Kia?

2009 Kia Soul - 3rd Street Promenade - Santa Monica, California - August 19, 2008

This past week, I was staying at the Double Tree Inn on 4th Street in Santa Monica, just over the freeway. Considering our office is located on the opposite side of the Promenade, it was some good morning exercise to walk from the hotel, carrying my backpack with my laptop and work items AND my camera gear. (I try not to go anywhere without it when I'm in Santa Monica.)

After eating breakfast at the diner at 3rd and Broadway, (eggs, hash browns, (yum), chicken sausge (not so yum... more bleh)) my boss and I trekked up 3rd street towards the office. I can't quite remember if we planned to stop at the Coffee Bean or not, but in any case we were walking on the right road.

As we walked along, we noticed people with HDV cameras filming and doing sound checks along the block. Having a few friends in the filming industry I figured they were either a) filming a commercial or b) site scouting - either one would be fun to see. At first, I thought about snapping a few photos of the crew, but then I saw this car at the end of the block.... bonus score.

So, we turned the corner and headed west toward the office and I starting undoing my equipment and switched to my Sigma 24mm f/2.8 lens for a close-up shot. The lighting wasn't great as it was early morning and it was a little hazy - or smoggy... not sure which really. Above is the resulting picture... the only one I was able to get off before being tapped on the shoulder and asked to leave the area.

Anyhow, here we have it - the 2009 Kia Soul!